so they are looking at rick perry and right now, rick perry's biggest competitor is rick perry. because he's got to introduce himself to the american people. he's using these debates to do so. and so, republicans and the rest of mer car looking at him and trying to figure out just who he is. so far, republicans like what they see. >> now rick perry seems, gloria, to have backed away from his long time critique of social security. he called in his book "fed up", calling it a ponzi scheme. but it looks like mitt romney will try to hammer him on it tonight. what does mitt romney try to do to chip away at rick perry. are romney people shocked at rick perry's rocket rise to the top? >> well, what rick perry did today, in a piece in usa today's kind of nuance, brooke, he didn't quite back way from it, but he said we need to reform it. not kill it. we need it reform it for younger voters. i would argue that's a little bit avenuance shift. but of doesn't really matter because mitt romney and perhaps michele bachmann are going to, not chip away at him, they are going to hammer away at hi

can perry take the punches and keep on swinging? plus, why has rick perry caught fire so quickly? we're going to ask ad guru donny deutsch, who thinks perry's got just what the right wants these days. plus, president obama goes to ohio, home of house speaker john boehner to sell his american jobs bill. and if speaker boehner doesn't think there's work to be done, we've got the list -- oh, you knew we would -- of 95 bridges in boehner's own district that are structurally deficient according to the department of transportation, and one's in immediate need of repair right there in boehner's own district. and let me finish with the reign of terror sweeping through the tea party right. we start, however, with rick perry in the republican establishment. pat buchanan, who is not part of the establishment, is an msnbc political analyst, and george pataki, a longtime governor of new york joins us. a man who i once thought would be the nominee of the republican party. shows what i know about republicans. anyway, last week karl rove was asked about rick perry's past writing and statements on

we want you to vote for rick perry too. but not their rick perry, our rick perry. on august 13th write in rick perry, that's perry with an as q as for america, with an "a" for iowa,-- that's right. (cheers and applause) i'll join you. i'll join you. folks, i want every one in the iowa nation to go to the ames straw poll this saturday, going to be a beautiful day. there's food, there's booze. and write in rick perry with an "a" why "a" because there's no "e" in team. and this evening-- (laughter) >> and this evening at 1700 hours we struck again with our second ad in the greater des moines metropolitan area. jimmy? >> iowa, a land of good people who can make up their own minds. but outside groups like jobs for iowa superpac are trying to pander to iowans with pro perry ads featuring cheap cornography. >> just so you will vote for rick perry at the ames straw poll. >> but americans for a better tomorrow tomorrow believe that iowans deserve better. and we're going to give it to you. >> oh way. on august 13th. write in rick perry. that's perry with an a for america, wi

she put perry on the ropes. she put perry on the ropes on an issue that was passionate, to core conservative social voters. and then went too far. this is going to be a week that she may realize and regret that if this thing doesn't get back off the ground -- that if she doesn't get some momentum back in iowa, it could be seen as the week that ended her candidacy or ended her possibilities of even trying to win iowa. happiest people about that right now, the guy that was in iowa last night, rick perry. >>> finally, here in washington, apparently it's bill daley pile-on day. if you can't fire the owner, you fire the coach, right? or you complain about the coach. and a number of anonymous democrats are saying, it's time for the white house chief of staff to change in some form or another. the "huffington post" quotes one former administration official saying daley is disorganized and people are longing for rom. another anonymous source says is there a level of unhappiness with bill around the white house? yeah, yo

taking 37% to perry's 15%. perry did eke out second place over mitt romney. perry's loss in florida is blamed on his debate showing both in substance and style and seeming inability to effectively attack romney. >> was it was before he was before the social programs from the standpoint he was for standing up for roe versus wade before he was against roe versus wade. >> perry defended his performs at saginaw island, michigan where he was competing in that state's romneyesque straw poll. >> there may be slicker candidates and smoother debaters. i know what i believe in. i will stand on that belief every day. i will guide this codeep, deep rudder. >> mitt romney handily beat perry in his former state of michigan where his father was governor and romney grew up. beat perry by 34 points. they know if romney this is nominee, their state may be in play. there was a sympathetic play on perry's bad 96 hours came from somebody who had to deal with bad debate performances before with clients, that was mary madeline. what she said on abc. >> rick perry is not the best de

then when michele bachmann linked perry's decision to contributions perry had gotten from a pharmaceutical company, perry's denial left him open to questions. >> the company was merck and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received for them. i raise about $30 million and if you're saying that i can be budget bought for 5,000, i'm offended. >> his response was i'm offended if you think i can be bought by $5,000. he needs to come out and say it. he needs to try to explain relationships and talk about government and fund raising and his role as governor. >> some of the republicans we talked to today said that while perry wasn't perfect, the biggest problem he's creating for himself could come in a general election taking positions that could be hard to defend in the event he gets the republican nomination. >> executions. it's a controversial issue because he's had a lot of them. it didn't come up, but that's potentially an issue. >> a huge issue because he's got a lot more executions coming up and he's already gone on the record and said, hey, i support the texas position. i support exec

rick perry proved he's not interested in being anyone but rick perry. that's a strength and a weakness. perry doubled down in a view expressed in his book that social security is a ponzi scheme. he actually used the phrase before anybody used it first. listen. >> it is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today you're paying into a program that's going to be there. anybody that's for the status quo, with social security today, is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids. >> in the book "fed up," you say by any measure social security is a failure. you can't say that to tens of millions of americans who live on social security and those who have lived on it. our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing to social security but is committed to saving social security. >> the republican electorate is not young. the republican electorate is very old. perry showedes willing to poke it tighter and make the case he's the truth teller. he won't roll over for politics. romney's camp made clear in the spin room that they se

it was perry's immigration stance that romney seized on. >> my friend governor perry said that if you don't agree with his position on giving that in state tuition to illegals, that you don't have a heart. i think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart. it means that you have a heart and a brain. >> reporter: for his part today, a still feisty perry urged republicans to focus not on stage performance but on core beliefs. >> as conservatives, we know that values and vision matter. it's not who is the slickest candidate, or the smoothest debater that we need to elect. we need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country. >> reporter: conservative stalwarts like freedomworks chair, dick armey, acknowledged perry had a tough night, but said there was plenty of time for his fellow texan to bounce back. >> everybody can come back from one bad debate. when it comes to the issues, like social security, perry stands on solid ground. the ice beneath him may have got a little thin last night, but that can solidify

rick perry came out strong. everyone held themselves to the end and perry needed to do well. i think he did well. i don't think the social security exchange helps romney at all. i think he's foolish to continue it. he may want to go after perry on hpv or i am dprags. i think the majority believe with perry. for the life of me, i can't understand why he would go with this. >>> governor roland, your take. >> if you're ayala continue owe voter, the last thing you want to hear is some of the things you heard. colorado, new mexico, arizona will be -- the gop did themselves no favor in trying to curry with latino. so much emphasis, talking about social security, talking about a balanced budget, most of the -- >> it came up in abolished in the department of education. >> right. that's the only moment it came up. frankly, if you're a parent trying to get your kid educated. they didn't speak to the crisis when it comes to education. major failure in that not coming up. >>> gloria bore jer? >> i think anderson what we saw was this race is far from over. there's an internal fight going

a candidate like perry who's been campaigning in texas all of his life or carl rove, who says perry's language is toxic to republicans and republican primary voters? here's what steve schmidt, campaign manager for john mccain in 2008 said on wednesday night after the debate. >> when you're explaining controversial statements, you're losing, and that's what the problem with the ponzi scheme statement is. there's no constituency in the republican party to abolish social security, lawrence o'donnell pointed this out correctly before, president bush tried to privatize social security in '05, there was no congressional support because they know the constituents don't support it, and i think it's going to be very problematic for governor perry as you look at the south carolina coast where there's a lot of retirees, when the campaign moves into florida, and i think that stewart stevens is exactly right, you can't win a national campaign when you are on the record calling for the dismantling of social security and then exacerbating it with statements like he did tonight. it's very problematic

were you surprised how unprepared perry seemed to be? he seemed ready on social security and he knew he would have the crowd with him. the economy thing he was okay on. then it just seemed to -- >> he struggled with the immigration question and how you sort of square the idea that you're going to give state benefits, taxpayer funded benef benefits, to the children of illegal immigrants knowing the tea party activists and republican activists in general are anti-immigration. i was surprised he wasn't prepared for that. he's the governor of texas. you would think immigration would be an issue he's very nimble. the idea the alternative was give them this benefit or put them on the government doll the way he tried to frame it is not quite -- doesn't quite ring true. it is the government doll. taxpayers pay for the education that those kids are getting. i, by the way, think he did the right thing but i'm a democrat. >> does seem as if perry is trying to set up a potential contrast down the road with romney, saying i'm going to own all of thes

. >> perry versus romney, g.o.p. debate. >> how hot does it get between rick perry and mitt romney. >> eight people on the stage we're really only paying attention tonight to two. >> jon: thank you. i knew i could ignore those other people. by the way, i know it was a preview. what did happen? >> mitt romney and rick perry kicking it up a notch. >> mitt romney and rick perry went at it. >> mitt romney and rick perry go face to face. >> it was nothing but fire. >> it was exactly the thing you thought it would be. [ laughter ] there's only two explanations how that could have happened. one four months before any vote is cast. you decide the nomination is down to romney and perry. frame the debate by pitting the two against each other or your precogs. i'll let the audience at home decide. [ laughter ] >> governor romney, your private sector experience as governor perry's strategist recently put it consisted of being quote a buy out specialist. your response to that? >> governor perry you clearly don't like the massachus

they did not succeed, so carl rove got perry to switch parties to run against me, but perry was inconsequential back in those days, he never campaigned statewide and didn't know anything about dallas or houston or south texas, so rove sent him out to west texas to go to farm bureau meetings while rove raised about $3 million and put them in trash ads. my real opponent was carl rove. >> what do we know about his debate style given his exposure. >> he's not particularly a nice guy, i don't think he's going to take well to a lot of this. but to me, i got to tell you, lawrence, the issue isn't whether or not he can debate or not, the issue is what kind of governor has he been, who might he be as president. good example today, he comes flitting back here to texas after being back on the campaign trail two days after the fires are bursting out all over the state. by the way, these fires are not an unanticipated consequence. in fact, perry's own state officials say that they were inevitable, inevitable not only because of the dry heat that we've been having, but also -- and the high winds -- but also

. >> full court pile on. >> perry seems so unprepared. >> he's not great at coming back. >> perry was losing the crowd. >> mitch, you were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker. >> hpv. >> a vaccine on a disease that has spread through sexual intercourse. >> this is just flat-out wrong. >> and then they lost them on immigration. >> that is not the american way. >> buenos noches mi amigos. >> job growth was 10% a year. >> i think you need to know what a real texas accent sounds like. >> good evening from new york. closely following the advice given to him on this program, not by me, president obama took his american jobs act on the road again today, this time to ohio, home state of house speaker john boehner. the president spoke to a crowd of more than 3,000 people at a columbus area school campus that recently completed a major modernization and renovation. the kind the president has proposed doing across the country in his jobs bill. >> those of you here at ft. hays have been making it happen. see, a few years back you decided to renovate this school. and you didn't just r

perry? you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] unlike some car companies, nissan is running at 100%, which means the most innovative cars are also the most available cars. nissan. innovation for today. innovation for all. ♪ >>> house speaker boehner announced he'll host one of a dozen business leaders during the address. federal regs are keeping them from hiring workers. among them is the head of gibson guitars. gibson has become a cause celeb lately. the gibson factory in tennessee ras raided last month and the company is under investigation by the justice department for using wood banned in the country. the ceo says that investigation may force american workers to lose their job. so there you have it. we'll be right back. introducing the schwab mobile app. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, t

now perry. perry versus obama, obama wins with 50%. perry, 45%. question, does this strike you as cheeky? for governor perry who late in live converted from democratic party to the republican party, to question romney's political conviction? i ask you, tim. >> i think that romney care is a huge difficulty for mitt romney, because the main thing the republicans can use against obama is obama care. so on that very relevant issue -- romney care in massachusetts they passed a law that included individual mandates as well as subsidies for people to get insurance, and other -- >> what's the problem? individual mandate? >> individual mandate. and today the fact that it was a prototype for obama's national bill. and i think romney says that state by state, and this happened -- customized for massachusetts. >> it's way too huge. but the problem is you had four years ago john mccain in the same position that romney walks with all these things on immigration, on taxes, campaign finance reform. no republican could nominate him because he was too much of a rin

and perry on romney. have a great weekend. welcome back dana. you are a blistering critic. >>> coming up, republican lawmakers are rewriting laws restricting access to voting. guess what, they are aimed at hurting obamas re-election. they are changing the rules, guess why? so no one will vote. you're watching "hardball." i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. or will soon, you're starting a whole new journey. and, like many people, you're probably wondering, where do i go from here? consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unit

perry, 42%. romney, 26%. that's a pretty big split. >> these polls are snap shots at one moment in time. i believe as this campaign unfold is that mitt romney is the most knowledgeable, capable and electable candidate under this race. i don't have any doubt about that role of and i think you will see the change in the coming months? >> what's the worst part about rick perry? >> i don't know that there is a worst part. >> social security? >> governor romney, governor perry have different views. romney has the better view with which is let's fix it, reform it, put it on a better path. >> perry calls it a ponzi scheme. you think that will basically hurt him in the general election or republican contest? >> what i will say is romney has the better idea, which is let's fix it, get it back on stable and solid footing. but this idea of calling it a failure is not the wise path. >> what about you? when i immediately heard you were endorsing mitt romney i said maybe tim pawlenty wants to be his running mate if he gets

one would seem to run counter to what rick perry was saying, but rick perry did certainly hit upon something. there is problems with social security. look at this number right here. are there problems with social security? and here, major changes, are they needed? 55% say, yes. that is the case. of course, this is all tied in to one thing. the economy, ali. >> and this is -- this is interesting, because rick perry kind of made this an issue. social security's sort of a back burner concern to a lot of people. it's tied to our debt and deficit concerns but he's put this in the forefront. does this help him ultimately or not that these polls show not everybody believes his characterization of it? >> could be potentially a devastating issue in the general election. republican versus democrat. right now in the primary, it's not hurting him. in fact at the debate, that wasn't the big issue. we saw social security, up to last night, for rick perry now it's about mandates he has to deal with and illegal immigration. >> we'll be talking a lot more about it. thank, mark preston. back to christine. >>

perry. >>> and the ipod controversy, they're giving them to kids in kindergarten. >>> let's go right back to afghanistan. ten years after 9/11 there's been no let-up in the war that started in response to the attacks. our suzanne malveaux joins us from the afghan capital, just met with the president of that country. suzanne, does hamid karzai see an end to the u.s. military in his country? >> reporter: well, drew, he certainly hopes for this and he says that he sees an end to this. he says that by the end of 2014 that is when u.s. and nato combat troops are expected to draw down and to leave. there will be trainers left, there will be advisors left but it certainly seems as if the president wants to make sure that his own security, his own people, can manage and can handle that huge task but, drew, i have to tell you, there has been a long history, as you know. at least ten years now with hamid karzai and various administrations, the bush administration and obama administration inherited ham

rick perry, mitt romney. mitt romney's been a guy that's been described as somebody that you're not sure if he's comfortable in his own skin. rick perry seems like, hey, i am who i am. >> one thing about mitt romney, i think mitt romney in private settings, sort of interesting, charming, engaging, in public not so much. i think perry feels like more comfortable in his skin. i think these guys spend too much time. i blame the candidates, because ultimately it's about the candidates, they spend too much time thinking about how they're coming in cost. and it's partly our fault. if he had said that thing, i wouldn't even see it. >> exactly. >> makes me blush. >> but can you imagine what they would have done -- >> but very quickly, it's a point that we all say we want authenticity and the minute a candidate is authentic, we all kill him. >> i know a little bit about that. >> oh, no. >> that's part of it. >> so washington folks can't handle these guys who really aren't comfortable with themselves like a rick perry

this is perry's to lose. perry has got the money. perry has the infrastructure. perry's got the conservative right wing christians. perry, it's his to lose. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. talking about tonight's social security. do you trust the republicans with your social security? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and make a comment. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. >>> let's turn now to jim moore, "huffington post" contributor and author of the book "why rick perry will make americans miss george w. bush." and dave weigel with us tonight. and democratic strategist. gentlemen, glad to have us tonight. mr. cook, did rick perry do anything to hurt himself tonight in defending his position on where he stands on social security? >> no, i don't think he did. i actually think he helped himself tonight. i did think, though, that last week during the msnbc debate he got off his own narrative by talking so ardently about social security and that's what gave the other candidates

she was ever for perry. coming up -- if you don't tell us i can make it up. coming up, the other headline from last night's debate wasn't beautiful to watch, ugly, the crowd become the story about a gay soldier fighting in uniform. there he is. booing somebody fighting for our country and risking his life over there. why won't the candidates stand up for this stuff? nobody is standing up for this stuff. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. there's only one bottle left ! i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony ? sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fresno. growing businesses use machine-to-machine technology from verizon wireless. susie ! the vending machine... already filled. cool bike. because the business with the best technology rules. sun life financialrating should be famous.d bad, we're working on it. so you're seriously proposing we change our name to sun life valley. do we still get to go skiing? sooner or later, you'll know ou

perry worries gop. rick perry, beginning of the end? here is a talking points memo are the headline running with rick. they turn on perry after the debate and bill crystal wrote a special editorial with the headline yikes. no front-runner in a presidential field has ever had as weak a showing as rick perry. it's as close to a disqualifying two hours for him. thank you for joining us so much. >> thank you for having me. >> among republicans, that's the target audience through next spring. how bad did rick perry do? >> he had a tough night. it's difficult to say, it's a difficult night for perry. more than that, he created an opening for governor romney with 3500 republican activists gathered in orlando. this is a straw ballot that romney declined to participate in. there's been an opening created. you have to remember, we are very early. at this point, rudy giuliani was the darling of the media and leading in the polls. things can change quickly. >> politics gets more advanced every four years, things move faster. rudy giuliani was the l

>> i'm watching perry. looking to see whether or not he's going to be as strong in defending his stanchions as he is on offense. he had really weak answers last debate. if he's going to solidify himself, he needs to give better answers. >> in 30% -- >> not a bad problem to have. >> michele bachmann is the one to watch tonight. if she can take wind out of perry's sail, this back to being a competitive race. >> alex, dana. great to see you. we'll watch tonight with you. carol, christine? >> thanks, ali. >>> just ahead on "american morning" a stunner at the u.s. open and what could be a match for the ages on the men's side today. we're going to talk to "sports illustrated" about one of the most action packed sports weekends of the year. >>> we know your toddlers love their gadgets. a school in maine is giving ipads to each of its kindergartens saying educational software on the ipad could help teach students how to read, but is this the best way to do it? more on this story later. when an investment lacks disc

. >> rick perry to mitt romney. >> perry to romney. >> who did you go from and two? >> perry to gingrich. >> why? >> we've been doing these for a while. mitt romney, what is so strong? >> besides decisions perry a waffler. he looked presidential. >> i thought he spoke with great specificity. >> he gave specific answer autos very edgey in the way he answered questions. >> he was elegant. >> i have not heard that word describing mitt romney before. >> i thought perry was too defensive, spending too much time fighting with romney instead of talking about his policy. >> there are three segments we're going to show tonight. first was the most-negative reaction i've seen any republican candidate among republican primary voters. this is rick perry talking about immigration. let's take a look. >> most folks... i guess we don't have that clip. you remember we talked about immigration and said that those who don't support funding people with illegal immigration, -- funding education have no heart. what was so wrong with that? >> absolutely disgusting thing to say when you hold

perry. >> i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they're dealing with. is it is mitt romney against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment? was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing out for roe vs. wade, before he was against roe vs. wade? he was for race to the top? he's for obamacare and now he's against it. >> there are a lot of reasons not to elect me or other people on this stage. but one reason to elect me is that i know what i stand for. >> just roll right into immigration. and then here is the immigration hit. >> i would build a fence on america's southern border on every mile, on every yard, on every foot, on every inch of the southern border. >> i want to reinforce what congresswoman bachmann said. i strongly favor 100% control of the border. >> we have to have a fence, we have to have enough border control agents to secure the fence. >> i think the fact he doesn't want to build a fence, he

perry are. he is not some magic monolith of a campaign here. since 1994, the only thing you've had to do as a republic in texas to win is avoid being the democrat. >> reporter: rick perry is also used to being the front-runner. he's always held the lead and he's comfortable in front of the crowd. he was a yell leader like a cheerleader at texas a&m. >> all of that in a weird way helps him and i think makes him a better politician, better campaigner and certainly by all accounts he's as good a campaignerer as anyone seen down here in our lifetimes. >> reporter: but there's still months left in this race. rick perry can't ride off into the sunset as the republic nominee just yet. >> and ed lavandera joins us now. ed, how much do you think perry's recent successes does he really owe to the tea party, would you say? >> well, i think that's an interesting question because if you look back at the last five or six years where rick perry has been politically here in this it texas. in the 2006 gub ernato

that's weyrich perry has taken off. he has -- he's got the washington -- anti-washington rhetoric down to a fine art. you combine that with his jobs report in texas, and that's where the energy is. politics is all about intensity, tim larry in primaries, so rick perfectly is lighting it up. >> now, bob, you want on this show that there was the real possibility that perfectly could come on strong, take the momentum and wrap this up early. i, for one, thought you were, you know, drinking too much caffeine, but it looks like every day you may be right, in terms of wrapping up the nomination, i'm saying. >> yeah, i guess i should be a little cautious about the boldness of that prediction, but i believe it. i think there's a real chance it could happen. he's mostly skipped debates, so we'll see what he does. i think he would be wise not to abandon the intensity mark just talked about, not go to a romney game plan, where he just tries to hold on, but go out there and really reinforce at the strength he has without scaring mor

obama versus perry? >> yes. i do think they would rather see obama versus perry. although it seems to me that they're still kind of trying to lay groundwork for obama versus romney. they seem to think that in the end it's probably going to be romney. and if perry continues at this rate, they'll be right, i think. romney is turning in solid performance after solid performance in the debates. they might be "b" performances or "b" plus. they're not "a" plus. he's a good debater and he manages to put the focus on perry and not the focus on his own flip-flops, on obamney care, on the reasons that republicans really don't like him that much. and, you know, the more he sticks around, the more he, i think, might come to seem inevitable. >> and romney, gene, has been running for president for more than five years now. perry's been at it for about five weeks. that difference is really showing now. >> it sure is. romney is a much better candidate than he was last time around. he kind of knows how to do this. rick perry clearly does not. and he needs to be on an extremely ste

if no republican candidate can stop rick perry, might the author, rick perry, stop rick perry? joining me now, co-author of politico's article today about this book, senior writer maggie haberman, thanks for joining me tonight, maggie. >> thanks for having me. >>> perry keeps getting caught in the pages of his own book. today, i did, just when i sat down at this table before the show, i flipped it open randomly to any page, because i believe i can find something nutty on any page. i landed on page 41. i promise you, i swear, and it says -- "this leads me to the great milestone on the road to surfdom, the passage of the 16th amendment." what's he talking about there, and when is it coming? >> it's going to come if we don't take all of these things back and revert to federalism, according to this book. i think this book is a tremendous potential problem for him in the general election, as you said, it's also a problem in certain primary areas. in florida, as you noted, this is not a good thing. seniors get alarmed about a change to social security. they do not want to hear it com

. >> full court pile on. >> perry seems so unprepared. >> he's not great at coming back. >> perry was losing the crowd. >> mitch, you were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker. >> hpv. >> a vaccine on a disease that has spread through sexual intercourse. >> this is just flat-out wrong. >> and then they lost them on immigration. >> that is not the american way. >> buenos noches mis amigos. >> job growth was 10% a year. >> i think you need to know what a real texas accent sounds like. >> good evening from new york. closely following the advice given to him on this program, not by me, president obama took his american jobs act on the road again today, this time to ohio, home state of house speaker john boehner. the president spoke to a crowd of more than 3,000 people at a columbus area school campus that recently completed a major modernization and renovation. the kind the president has proposed doing across the country in his jobs bill. >> those of you here at ft. hays have been making it happen. see, a few years back you decided to renovate this school. and you didn't just

they did not succeed, so carl rove got perry to switch parties to run against me, but perry was inconsequential back in those days, he never campaigned statewide and didn't know anything about dallas or houston or south texas. he was an inept campaigner. so rove sent him out to west texas to go to farm bureau meetings, while rove raised about $3 million and put it in tv ads and trashed me. my real opponent was karl rove. >> what do we know about his debate style given his exposure. >> he's not particularly a nice guy, i don't think he's going to take well to a lot of this. but to me, i got to tell you, lawrence, the issue isn't whether or not he can debate or not, the issue is what kind of governor has he been? who might he be as president? right now, great example today, he comes flitting back here to tem as after being on the campaign trail. two days after these fires are bursting out all over the state. by the way, these fires are not an unanticipated consequence. in fact, perry's own state officials say that they were inevitable, inevitable not only because of the dry heat that we've been h

for perry it was going after romneycare. take a listen to that exchange. >> hour hard copy book, you said it was exactly what the american people needed to have, that romneycare given to them as you had in massachusetts. then this your paperback you took that line out. so speaking of not getting it straight in your book, sir -- [cheers and applause] >> reporter: and, of course, with all those exchanges going on last night, it did leave the other candidates on the stage looking for attention, and some of them expressed frustration when i talked to them after the debate saying, of course, they want to have more time in the spotlight. they don't want this to now be settled as just a two-man race. by the way, one of the most emotional moments was to herman cain surviving stage four cancer, a lot of folks admire him, and he brings a great sense of humor to the stage in all of these debates, martha. martha: yeah, he did very well. i heard he told his handlers, you know, i don't want to work on anything the last couple of days befo

you've seen mitt romney and rick perry. stylistically, they are so different, that's about as animated as mitt romney gets. rick perry, he's the cowboy, he's charismatic, he's shaking all hands. >> he connects. >> how do you close that gap if you're mitt romney? >> i think one of the -- >> the charisma gap. >> he's not even necessarily trying to be the charismatic, fire breathing kind of tea party guy. he was there on sunday in new hampshire in front of a tea party crowd. never even said the words tea party. >> in truth, regardless of what he says, we all three know this, mitt romney is not a natural tea party guy. he's an establishment politician, for better or worse. >> exactly. that's in some ways what he's running as. his whole campaign is all about being a ceo. the problem is that he doesn't necessarily connect with the tea party folks who are all about populace. >> the question is, you watched the 2010 election. this is a different republican party that you got elected to. you watched what happened. we saw people with

. >>> mitt romney and rick perry. they're not waiting until tonight's debate in orlando to go after each other. romney has been hammering at perry on issues critical to floridians such as social security. perry fired back that romney is acting like a good democrat. tensions swell as the stakes grow higher, especially for perry tonight. >>> also, building a bridge for the 2012 re-election fight. president obama heads to cincinnati. talk of infrastructure in need of repair. the bridge that connects the home states of john boehner and mitch mcconnell. >>> fears of another government shutdown loom yet again after a temporary funding bill. not even a full-fledged one. goes south. a rare bipartisan rebuke for the republican leadership. it's thursday, september 22nd, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm back in washington. i'm chuck todd. let's get to my first read of the morning. we begin with orlando. all eyes on the political world today are on the two battleground states that could decide the 2012 presidential race. fl

they could definitely side with perry. i definitely would not call this a full two-man race just yet. >> the other thing, lawrence, is that we don't talk at all in these conversations about independent voters who because there is no contest on the democratic side will vote in the republican primaries in states with open primaries. where they're allowed to do so. their views are not picked up by a lot of these polls which is why i think it's too early to rule out jon huntsman. tom ridge just endorsed him. is he likely to get the nomination? obviously not. but it would be silly at an early stage to rule anybody out and you could see a situation where perry knocks -- beats romney badly in iowa then romney is very vulnerable in new hampshire to somebody else. there are a lot of different ways this could go and there's a long history of these things turning out very differently than they looked even in december of a year prior to an election. a lot can change. >> christina, to your point about how long michele bachmann and ron

also, rick perry is about to feel the heat. >> rick perry doubled spending in a decade. and this year rick perry's spending more money than the state takes in. >> that's not from the dnc. that's from michele bachmann's pac. the word is that sarah palin is about to go after perry as well. it's not easy being the front-runner. democrats and republicans alike are taking it to cantor to say that fema money for hurricane victims has to be offset by spending cuts elsewhere. and the new jobs report, no new jobs created. as we head into labor day weekend, some say let's remember who got us here. george w. bush and dick cheney. and finally, let me finish tonight with the catch 22 of the republican party. anyone conservative enough to be nominated might be unelectable. and anyone moderate enough to be elected can't get nominated. we start with the disrespect shown towards president obama. roger simon is chief political columnist for politico and ron reagan is a political commentator. i want to show you something from "the new york times" that ran today. it says this. american pres

romney at 30, perry at 13. there's a suffolk university poll of new hampshire voters also has romney way up. the state of new hampshire, which is the first primary. but governor perry has been ahead in all the national polls. governor perry has been ahead in south carolina. i think governor perry is ahead at the moment in iowa. is the expectation among most conservatives that this is going to be one wins, then the other wins, one wins, then the other wins, we march on for awhile? >> no, not really. i think everyone kind of thinks this is going to go on for awhile but you know, for awhile, just for perspective right now, is go on until iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, which is four months away. it seems like we've been doing this since november 7th of 2010. we have been in this. look, it does make a stronger candidate. if you look historically, even in the house races, senate races and presidential races, the candidates down to the state level, the candidates who don't have aggressive primaries typically

taking 37% to perry's 15%. perry did eke out second place over mitt romney. perry's loss in florida is blamed on his debate showing both in substance and style and seeming inability to effectively attack romney. >> was it was before he was before the social programs from the standpoint he was for standing up for roe versus wade before he was against roe versus wade. >> perry defended his performs at saginaw island, michigan where he was competing in that state's romneyesque straw poll. >> there may be slicker candidates and smoother debaters. i know what i believe in. i will stand on that belief every day. i will guide this country with a deep, deep rudder. >> mitt romney handily beat perry in his former state of michigan where his father was governor and romney grew up. beat perry by 34 points. they know if romney this is nominee, their state may be in play. there was a sympathetic play on perry's bad 96 hours came from somebody who had to deal with bad debate performances before with clients, that was mary madeline. what she said on abc. >> rick perry is no

an intensely factor on the perry side. people hoop like perry like him a lot. people who know romney just like him. really good reporting in politico last week saying the book he wrote has a lot of land mines in it. people will explodes the land mines to see if he has staying power. there was never a question about the fact mitt romney was not going to be able to waltz to this nomination. not the front-runner and get the nomination next year. he would face a big challenge. looks like rick perry is the big challenge nap doesn't mean mitt romney can't bounce back. especially if people look under the hood, as you put it in terms of has rick perry is, what he believes and whether he could win a general election. >> two points now. it the concern about rick perry -- not whether conservatives like him or not. conservatives are really conservative, republican party. or the fear he won't pass muster next november? is it possible, you can't go too far right for the tea partiers? >> i think there's two questions about rick perry, to hit on what you're asking, chris. one,

>> probably the spotlight was on rick perry. he had a couple shaky debate performances heading into last night's matchup. he struggled. he almost always starts off pretty strong in the clips that you just showed. pretty much happened at the beginning of the debate and some of perry's better moments in fact. as the debate wore on he wasn't as quick on his feet and didn't seem that prepared and he tried one line of attack accusing mitt romney of being a flip-flopper and it just fell flat. >> what about mitt romney? what did we learn from him? it seems with each debate mitt romney seems to be fairly unflappable in settings like these. >> it's a sign that it helps to have run for president before as mitt romney did just four years ago. he seems a lot more comfortable. a lot more polished than he did back then. so this is now -- he's participated in five debates. been five solid debate performances. in one striking departure from last cycle, last time around you had john mccain, mike huckabees all piling on mitt romney. this time aro